September 10, 2025 When I interviewed the young man at Camp Guggenheim, I thought he looked familiar. Every year, when I go to camp to write a story for this newspaper, I ask the staff to pick the three to four campers I interview. They know which kids are chatty and outgoing, and those kids tend to interview well. This year, I interviewed two young ladies and a young man. I couldn’t place where, but I knew I had seen that young man before. A couple weeks after the camp article was printed, I saw that young man’s face again. This time, it was on social media. It turns out, the young man is an acquaintance’s son. I sent the young man’s dad a link to the story, and we chatted for a bit about Camp Guggenheim. “I go tomorrow to pick up my son, Jake, there,” I told him. “I was a camper back in 1996.” “We love Guggenheim,” the dad responded. “(His son) is the first of our family to go there. To hear his stories and those from other campers is great. Then to feel the positive energy at drop off and pickup, especially at the closing Mass, just puts it on a level that I don’t have words for.” I know exactly the feeling he struggled to put into words. To me, it’s an overwhelming presence of Christ’s love, peace and joy and seeing it in my son and in so many teens adds hope to the mixed emotional bag – hope in the future of our Church, which looks so very bright every week of Camp Guggenheim, hope that these young people will hold on to their love of Christ and spend eternity with him. We help bring that gift of hope to those campers, their families, the staff and anyone blessed to drive through those wooden gates that signify the entrance to Camp Guggenheim. All of us – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, friends, priests, deacons, consecrated religious – combine our efforts through our support of the annual Bishop’s Fund Appeal – both in prayer and in donations – to make camp possible. United We Bring Hope. If camp were the only benefit of the Bishop’s Fund, I still think it would be worth supporting. But the impact of that support goes far beyond that spot on a lake in the Adirondack Park. Our Bishop’s Fund Appeal supports our seminarians, Catholic education, efforts to reach men and women who are discerning their vocations, youth leadership and faith-based fun events, faith formation, evangelization and more. It funds direct help for individuals in need through the Good Samaritan Fund. United through our Bishop’s Fund Appeal, we truly give the gift of hope. It “just puts it on a level that I don’t have words for.” |
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